Characteristics of Print Medium

Characteristics of Print Medium

Print media are lightweight, portable, disposable publications printed on paper and circulated as physical copies in forms we call books, newspapers, magazines and newsletters.

They hold informative and entertaining content that are of general or special interest. They are published either once or daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, bimonthly or quarterly.

Print media characteristics are determined by the message, the delivery and the production. When using print media, it is advantageous to know what you want to say and the best way to say it.

Characteristics of Print Media

• Mass circulation in print media
• Delivery
• Print media production

No matter what their size or frequency of publication, all newspapers are faced with the task

of maintaining their local readers while attracting new ones.

• They are changing their makeup

• They are using more colour

• They are changing their writing and editing style

• They are changing the content of the paper

• They are closely monitoring audience reaction to their papers

Magazines – a.k.a. periodicals, serials, glossies, slicks – are publications that appear on a regular schedule and contain a variety of articles.

They are financed by advertising, a purchase price, pre-paid subscriptions or sometimes all three of these means.

Books

Newspapers, Magazines, Books

• Books are the oldest medium of mass communication.

• They are collections of printed pages

bound together.

• Their content can be information and/or entertainment.

• Preparation and production of a book can take many months.

• According to Google, there may be 130 million books in circulation.

Advertising in Print Media

Recapturing readers

Old vs New

Nowadays, media advertising is driven by enhancements to technology and the need for advertisers to reach their target audiences in the places where they are looking for information.

Print media advertising still has a very firm place in most ad schedules.

It still works because people tend to be away from work when they are reading information and looking at adverts in print.

The advertiser and, newspaper and magazine advertising gives them the space to capture potential customers when they are at their most relaxed.

Another area for print advertising is yellow pages and other directories.

Threats to

Magazines:

• Increase in media choices

• Specialized cable channels Eg: Food Network)

• Internet provides free content

More Characteristics

• Published regularly

• Appeal to a segment of society

• Fill the Gap between Newspapers and Books

• Provide entertainment

• Produce strong views on various subjects

Example - Politics

- Social Issues

• Magazines were the first medium to identify a specific audience.

• More women wrote for magazines than newspapers.

• Historians credit the magazine industry with

- Putting issues in national perspective

- Fostering a sense of national community

- Providing low cost entertainment

- Serving as an inexpensive “teacher” in daily

living

- Cultural heritage

- Offering a wide variety

Characteristics of Magazines

What is Print Media?

Newspapers

The 6 Most Important Characteristics of News

Magazines

•Newspapers are collections of printed pages folded together.

•Their content is mostly public affairs and events information reporting with some entertainment.

•Preparation and production of a newspaper can take hours.

•Tens of thousands of individual newspapers are published.

• Timeliness
• Impact
• Prominence
• Proximity
• Singularity (aka novelty)
• Conflict or controversy

Different types of Magazines

The Importance of Covers

•Magazines are collections of printed pages bound together.

•Their content includes both information and entertainment.

•Preparation and production of a magazine can take many weeks.

•There are some 20,000 different magazines.

Quickly analyze

the two covers.

What is the attitude

of the cover model?

Threats to

Newspapers:

What do you feel

is the content of each magazine?

- Radio

- Broadcast and Cable Television

- Internet

The body language and the use of type help communicate the content and attitude of each publication.